Game of Thrones season 7 finale title and length revealed

HBO has released the title of the final episode of Game of Thrones season 7.

Sunday’s super-sized episode is called “The Dragon and the Wolf” (preview below).

The episode’s buzzed-about running time has also now been officially confirmed: 79 minutes, 43 seconds.

That makes the finale the longest episode in the HBO drama’s history. The second longest, by the way, was this week’s “Beyond the Wall,” which just edged out last year’s finale for the record.

In the episode, representatives of the Lannister, Targaryen, and Stark houses unite for a pivotal cease-fire meeting at the Dragonpit — an ancient ruin in King’s Landing where the Targaryen rulers once kept their dragons — to discuss the threat of the Night King. Characters at the meeting include Cersei Lannister, Missandei, Jon Snow, Theon Greyjoy, Ser Davos, Tyrion Lannister, Brienne of Tarth, Jaime Lannister, and others (absent from footage of the meeting: Daenerys Targaryen). So the title could refer to the meeting … or potentially Jon and Dany’s burgeoning romance … or both?

Speaking of records, Sunday’s “Beyond the Wall” came close to breaking another benchmark for the network — generating 10.2 million viewers overnight (and more than 14 million when including repeats and streaming). That ties “The Spoils of War” earlier this season as the show’s second most-watched episode. Typically, Game of Thrones finales tend to set ratings records, so we’ll have to see if the show breaks through another ceiling before our long wait for season 8 — which goes into production in October and is expected to premiere in either late 2018 or early 2019.